So I finally watched “Into Darkness” today. I was going to wait until it was on Netflix, as I didn’t want to specifically spend money to see it, but my wife’s love of Benedict Cumberbatch drove her to the nearest Redbox to rent it.

I was already fully versed in the plot, so I concentrated more on the performances and dialogue. Best was Urban, followed by Quinto. Same as the first film, really. Everyone else felt underused. Pegg/Scotty was used much less as comic relief this time, but still not great. Cumberbatch was adequate and villainous in the role, but his performance doesn’t disguise that it’s a whitewashed piece of casting. Saldana had a couple of decent moments, but could have been more, and Eve was sadly little more than eye-candy.

When I compare it to Pacific Rim, which I love immensely, it comes up short in many ways. Del Toro’s film was a labour of love; Abrams’ effort felt like a cynical exercise in fan exploitation (right the way down to quoting verbatim lines from Wrath of Khan). It’ll never happen, but Pacific Rim’s creative team would do a far better job of expressing the fundamental humanity of Roddenberry’s creation because something closely akin to it was very much on display; it’s one of the reasons why I’m such a kaiju groupie.

Recalling the last thing Khan says to Admiral Marcus — “You should have let me sleep!” — I can’t help but think that Abrams should have done the same with the Star Trek franchise.